Note:Since this review originally ran, Bacchus Room has closed, but Ballyorney remains open.

The parallels between Shannon Yates and the Irish castle in south Fort Myers where he has cooked for the last month are many.

Both have been players in the local dining scene since the early 2000s. Both are known to make frequent, dramatic changes. Both have unique draws that bring people in regardless the menu or style.

Yet when Ballyorney announced Yates as a consulting chef earlier this summer, foodie eyebrows shot up throughout the area. Yates’ menus have been more nouveau American than Northern European, more Mediterranean than meat and potatoes. But there he was, holding court in the new Bacchus Dining Room on the east side of Ballyorney’s first floor.

Yates was easy to spot, all shaved-head and tattoos in a sea of early birds enjoying happy-hour pints of Smithwick’s and Guinness.

If the decor had changed to befit the new Bacchus, it was minimal. The woods were still dark, the walls still strewn with Irish-inspired curiosities and painted quotes.

Servers were quick to the tables, happy to walk you through nightly specials that could include hand-cut steaks topped with shreds of whole-roasted suckling pig, or crumbles of blue cheese and crisp bacon.

The menu was a Yates-Ballyorney blend of Latin, Spanish and Irish tastes – roasted chicken with chorizo, okra and Nicoise olives here; slow-cooked corned beef and cabbage, or cod fried in a Harp batter over there. If you didn’t know the back story, it seemed disjointed – but what it lacked in cohesion Yates made up for in clean plates and focused flavors.

That suckling pig made a delicious appearance in a starter of tacos, where porky shreds of it topped small rounds of corn tortillas. In another appetizer two perfect, giant shrimp topped a quartet of fried yucca; the crunchy, starchy batons soaking up the shrimp’s sweetly briny juices.

Salads included a very good Caesar and an even-better house salad laced in a creamy, scratch-made buttermilk ranch. Soups included sweet curry and shrimp, potato and bacon, and roasted red pepper with fennel – the latter tasting more like an under-seasoned marinara, one of the few missteps of my visits.

(Page 2 of 2)

If you wanted to play it safe, the $11 lamb burger was a delicious, comforting and less-expensive way of doing so. Yates’ pressed cheeseburger had followed him here from his past menus, as had his paella – a generous mix of seafood and saffron-tinged rice flecked with spicy chorizo in a savory broth.

There was Shannon’s shepherd’s pie with its bits of ground beef, lamb, peas and carrots in a veal gravy with truffle-oil-scented mashed potatoes. Those same, earthy spuds accompanied a plate of juicy, grill-seared meatloaf topped with more shreds of that suckling pork.

The wine list was shorter than Yates’ previous restaurants, though still heavy on Spanish and California selections. The beers – all 30-plus of them – came in more varied and interesting options, a nod to the pub side just across the way.

Desserts included whiskey-tinged bread pudding, Bailey’s Irish Cream cheesecake and a breathtaking cayenne crčme brulee that hit you first with its decadent creaminess, then again with an extraordinarily subtle tingle of spice. It made for a very happy ending to an interesting meal that could be as Irish or avant-garde as you chose.

I’ve written this in the past tense because I was informed Wednesday that Yates’ contract as a consulting chef at Ballyorney had ended, seemingly amicably. Ballyorney manager Brad Maloney said in an email to The News-Press the restaurant will be “using some of (Yates’) creations as we move forward.”

I hope they use a lot of them, and that they’ve studied Yates’ techniques closely. This is some of the best food this Irish castle has ever put forth. It would be a shame to see it gone so soon.